Summer is well on its way here in Cambridge and with temperatures soaring this week it may be tempting to strip off to cool down.

While some prefer to cool off by opting for a nice cold drink and a lie down, others just can't help getting in the nude.

This year the streets of Cambridge have already been graced with the annual world naked bike ride (June 15), which tends to stop traffic in more ways than one around the city.

And to honour everyone who bared all we thought it was time we got nostalgic and took a look back at nakedness in all its forms in Cambridge.

So, without further ado CambridgeshireLive introduces the good, the bad and the ugly of Cambridge nudity.

And lets be honest nakedness in Cambridge would not be the same without a few mentions of dogging and probably a few bums on display, so if you don't want to see it, look away now - you have been warned.

The Good

1. Cambridge University's Best Bum's Competition

'Vita' won the 2017 Best Bum competition. Here she is pictured leaning naked against an oak tree at Homerton College.

Every year brave Cambridge University students try to to be voted 'best bum'.

Dozens of students take time out of their studies to strip off naked in the cheeky annual challenge and bare all in the hope of being crowned Cambridge’s best behind.

They strip naked everywhere from rooftops to the library and even the local chippy - and will be back to it again this year no doubt.

Click the link, to check out last year's contenders.

2. The World Naked Bike Ride

The streets of Cambridge were full with naked cyclists protesting climate change (Image: davidjohnsonphotographic.co.uk)

In just a few weeks time, the annual World Naked Bike Ride will return to Cambridge in all its glory.

Cambridge World Naked Bike Ride was launched in our city in 2015 and the event has grown in popularity with hundreds of men and women of all ages stripping off to promote cycle safety in urban spaces and the health impact of road pollution.

The nude cycle tour, which runs through Cambridge city centre will take place from Midsummer Common on Saturday June 15 at 2pm and as usual, it comes with a strong environmental message.

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3. Students strip for charity calendar

Picture for the Cambridge University naked calendar. Students limbering up in the Botanic Gardens. (Image: Anthony Rubinstein)

In 2017 more than 70 sportsmen and women bared nearly all for a naked calendar, posing for photographer Anthony Rubinstein around the historical city in the first Cambridge RAG calendar of its kind.

The photos were shot in iconic locations such as the Botanic Gardens, Fitzwilliam Museum and the historic Union Chamber along with Homerton, Corpus Christi and Downing colleges with students sometimes having to be on location at 5.30am before the public were out and about.

At the time the calendar cost £10 from cambridgebluescalendar.com and money raised will go to the Lewy Body Society and Help Refugees.

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4. Naked swimming

For many of the idea of stripping off and jumping into the River Cam sounds like a nightmare, but not for the Newnham nudists.

There are a few places where you can enjoy a dip in the buff in Cambridge. Clubs include Newnham Riverbank Club in Cambridge and Cambridge Outdoor Club.

If you're not interested in dedicating a lot of time to it and just want to see what it would be like, you can always take part in Cambridgeshire's giant nude swimming event, which is taking place in July at Peterborough Lido and Mildenhall Swimming Pool.

6. Bereaved Soham mums dare to bare for naked calendar

Alison Fitt (pictured) lost her son Charlie in June and wanted to do something to raise money to help other parents facing similar experiences. (Image Alicia Marshall Photography) (Image: (Image Alicia Marshall Photography))

University students aren't the only ones who can get their kit off for a good cause.

A group of 12 Strong Soham Mums starred in their own real life version of the Calendar Girls and raised more than £26,000 for charity earlier this year (2019).

The women hoped to raise £5,000 for the Road Victims Trust and Addenbrooke’s Hospital Charitable Trust but ended up raising more than five times that amount.

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Bumping uglies

This is public nakedness on a different scale.

7. Gog MaGogs or as we like to call the Gog MaDogs

Scores of wet wipes are found in the trees and bushes next to the dogging car park in the Gog Magogs

Dogging, which involves people performing sex acts in cars or in secluded spots while others watch, is practised in locations across the county, including a quarry pit, nature reserve, near a model farm and public swimming pool.

Whittlesey nature reserve has been named as a dogging spot as well as Cow Lane and the Gog Magogs.

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Although the act is usually heavily frowned upon, one avid dogger told Cambridgeshire Live it actually helped to save her marriage, you can read more about it here.

8. Frisky couple 'do it' near the Grafton

The young couple got carried away near to The Grafton centre (Image: The Grafton Centre)

A young couple got carried away near to The Grafton centre and were charged with outraging public decency.

We won't name them - again - to spare further blushes but they were handed community orders.

The mother-of-two was wearing a T-shirt, which had ripped and exposed her breasts, and trousers which were falling down.

Cambridge Magistrates' Court heard she was lying on her back on the ground, while her partner performed a sex act.

Several members of the public were walking past and were seeing what was taking place.

The amorous couple then moved to an alleyway leading to Burleigh Place to carry out more acts – which were still seen by the public. Police were called, and both were later arrested.

In August 2015 both were also ordered to pay £180 court charge, £85 prosecution costs and £60 victim surcharge. The man was ordered to serve 80 hours of unpaid work, and the woman was made subject to a four week curfew between 7pm and 7am for four weeks.

9. Naked backpacker

BP Garage, Needingworth Road (Image: Google)

A naked backpacker strolled into a service station in Cambridgeshire alarming staff and prompting a call to police.

Cambridgeshire police diverted a patrol car after reports that the young man had walked into the garage stark naked - apart from a rucksack in Needingworth Road, St Ives at 5am in July 2016.

Staff had asked the naked teen to leave the shop and when police arrived he had gone. Officers searched the area but he was not found.

And in Dart Close, St Ives, that week police received a report that a naked man had been seen walking through the park.

The man was described as wearing only trainers and a backpack.

Sex in public - the law

It is not an offence to have sex in public unless it causes outrage to a witness.

The legislation that relates to dogging is the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

Dogging is not specifically defined as a sexual offence within the law but exposure of the genitals with the intent to cause alarm or distress to the person exposed is against the law.

10. Sex in the cinema

The Vue Cinema in Cambridge

A mother was shocked when she witnessed a woman performing a sex act on a man near to her family in a Cambridge cinema.

Jo Davies said she was "mortified" when her then 15-year-old son revealed he had also seen the couple in their 20s engaging in sexual behaviour in the row behind them during a matinee showing of Let's Be Cops at Vue in East Road.

She said the man did not seem bothered when he realised they had been caught.

Ms Davies, who was there with her two teenage sons and her sister and her teenage daughters, said the couple were using their phones and were not interested in the movie, which had cost her family more than £45.

She said: "The rest of my party hadn't noticed their annoying behaviour particularly so I chose to ignore them for the sake of the rest of my family.

"About halfway through the film, I turned around due to noise to see the female was performing a sex act on her male partner. They were blatant and when he realised I had seen them, he didn't seem bothered."

Ms Davies complained to a female member of staff after the incident in 2014, who expelled the couple "very efficiently".

11. Romping outside a house

Christian Gray was about to hit the sack when he heard “groaning” outside his bedroom window in Sedgwick Street, off Mill Road

Students could not believe the cheek of it when they spotted a bare-buttocked reveller romping with a woman outside their Cambridge house.

Christian Gray was about to hit the sack when he heard “groaning” outside his bedroom window in Sedgwick Street, off Mill Road.

When he pulled back his curtains he saw a couple engaging in a sex act in clear view on the pavement – and called out to his Anglia Ruskin friends to come and take a look.

The passionate pair were disturbed by the creak of the front door as Christian and his pals sought a better angle from which to film them.

The male casually pulled up his trousers and the female picked her handbag up off the ground before walking off from the well-lit pavement.

The man, seemingly put out by the interruption, then flicked two fingers up at the sniggering students, who by this stage numbered about eight.

12. 'Huffing and puffing' in our garden

A mother was shocked to find people having group sex in her front garden in Cambridge back in September 2014.

The Catharine Street resident woke up to the sound of "huffing and puffing" earlier this summer before seeing three young men "skulking off".

A "quite large girl" with her knickers around her knees then came into view, shuffling off while shouting at the trio for leaving her behind.

The mother-of-three said she was furious until she started laughing while discussing the "white bum in the moonlight" with her friends.

13. Fisherman caught with his tackle out

A stock image of a fisherman - clothed

A serial naked angler was spotted sunbathing and fishing in Cambridgeshire with his tackle out.

The brazen fisherman was spotted by shocked members of the public on several occasions soaking up the sun with his kit off around the area of Needingworth Lakes near St Ives in August last year.

14. Naked punting

We love punting but when we are clothed...

Police were called to the river and gave chase to a dozen naked punters.

Officers from Parkside police station were called to the River Cam in June 2016 after the boatload of revellers in the buff were seen on a craft and using a large pole to steer along the waterway.

Police hotfooted it to the scene of the ‘crime’ being committed at Quayside in the early hours of the morning.

But the large group of naked men had already set off towards Jesus Green and must have decamped from the boat and run off into the night.

The law on public nudity - it's not illegal

Under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, the law states that it is only an offence if the person "intentionally exposes his/her genitals, and he/she intends that someone will see them and be caused alarm or distress..."

18. Dirty salesman

Once again in June 2017, a double-glazing salesman was hunted by police for exposing his genitals to householders on their doorsteps.

Believed to be in his 20s, he was seen distributing leaflets in St Neots with his genitals sticking out of his trousers.

The window-selling flasher struck in Whitehall Walk, off Mallard Lane on Wednesday, June 14 2017.